Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities Author: Guillermo Del Toro Marc Zicree | Language: English | ISBN:
B00G2AQ7L8 | Format: EPUB
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities Description
Over the last two decades, writer-director Guillermo del Toro has mapped out a territory in the popular imagination that is uniquely his own, astonishing audiences with Cronos, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and a host of other films and creative endeavors. Now, for the first time, del Toro reveals the inspirations behind his signature artistic motifs, sharing the contents of his personal notebooks, collections, and other obsessions. The result is a startling, intimate glimpse into the life and mind of one of the world's most creative visionaries. Complete with running commentary, interview text, and annotations that contextualize the ample visual material, this deluxe compendium is every bit as inspired as del Toro is himself.
Contains a foreword by James Cameron, an afterword by Tom Cruise, and contributions from other luminaries, including Neil Gaiman and John Landis, among others.
- File Size: 38047 KB
- Print Length: 256 pages
- Publisher: Harper Design (December 31, 2013)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00G2AQ7L8
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,655 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
If you've followed the career of director Guillermo del Toro, you no doubt have an admiration for his films. On the whole, some films are more successful than others - but they all have great design work. In particular, his films are known for their abundance of creatures (some elegant, others terrifying).
We get personal artwork from every film that Mr. del Toro has directed - "Cronos", "Mimic", "The Devil's Backbone", "Blade II", "Hellboy", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Hellboy II: The Golden Army", and "Pacific Rim". Most of these are early drawings, sketches, and storyboards - and some of it differs greatly from what appears in the finished film. There are also full-page scans from del Toro's idea journals, which includes extensive writing in both English and Spanish. I am so glad that this artwork has been made available, it shows how much time and effort goes into the designs of these movies.
Del Toro has been attached to dozens of projects, yet he has only made 8 films. So there's a lot of work that has yet to make it to the screen - fortunately, we also get a few pages of designs from some of these unfinished projects, such as "At the Mountains of Madness" and "Meat Market".
By far the best and most numerous designs come from "Pan's Labyrinth" and the two "Hellboy" movies... a lot of the book's real estate is dedicated to those films. In terms of disappointments, I would have liked to have seen more from "Pacific Rim" - there are about 10 pages or so on that movie, but oddly there are no Jaeger or Kaiju drawings.
What's NOT included in the book: most notably, del Toro spent 2+ years working on pre-production of "The Hobbit" before leaving the project. As a fan, I would have loved to see some of his artwork from Middle-Earth.
So you're a fan of del Toro, otherwise you probably wouldn't even be looking at this page. The thing is, what you get out of this book ISN'T just another art book. It's not a collection of photos, stills, behind the scenes of his films or anything like that. At least, not intentionally though some of that does obviously creep in.
The book is a showcase of what make del Toro tick. Think of it as popping the top of his head off and watching his mind work, like the intricate machines he enjoys depicting in his films. It attempts to make connections inside of del Toro's mind, and show how he comes about his macabre, but brilliant, ideas and works.
There is a section for Bleak House, del Toro's home away from home, where his macabre sense of art meets his love of collections. And think of these collections as the inner workings of a cluttered, always thinking, always flowing, intense mind. And that's del Toro. We've seen some of this already in interviews and so on, but it's nice to see written descriptions by del Toro on the significance of "things."
Ever wanted to look into the mythical notebooks del Toro uses for his films? The ones where he collects all of his ideas and concepts then builds his films from there? We've seen some of this as well, but again, we further jump into the mind of del Toro and how it operates.
Also fascinating is the look at his unfinished works, or rather his as-of-yet-unproduced works. At the Mountains of Madness is something I desperately wish to see him finalize. The other unfinished projects all look like they could be promising as well, so perhaps one day we will see them all come to fruition?
You get a foreword by James Cameron. You get an afterword by Tom Cruise (no, really!).
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